Mobile phones are connecting people around the globe like never before, but the simple fact remains that they don't work without electricity. In Uganda, which has one of the lowest levels of electricity in Africa, Motorola has launched an initiative to provide solar recharging stations that can be run by local, entrepreneurial women.
Launched last year, Motorola's Motopower project has brought 55 solar-powered kiosks to Uganda that offer free mobile phone charging to local consumers. Each kiosk is charged by a 55-watt inverted solar panel and can charge up to 20 phones at a time. The women who run the kiosks, meanwhile, are also equipped to sell handsets and operator SIM cards and to provide repair services. For local people without their own phones, the kiosks effectively function as a local "phone booth" for making occasional calls as well.
The initiative was designed to empower entrepreneurial women by providing them with the foundations to manage their own sustainable businesses. As part of a start-up package, each entrepreneur is given four Motorola handsets and a business skills training course. Nikesh Patel, senior sales director for Motorola Africa's mobile devices business, explains: “The Motopower initiative is the first of its kind to exist for women in Africa. Through this program, we are giving women the opportunity to run their own business, learn valuable entrepreneurial skills and generate a positive income.”
Of course, besides empowering women and helping Ugandans stay connected, the project will likely increase Motorola's share of the local market as well. It's a win-win-win, and one for other global corporate citizens to emulate as often as they can!
Website: www.motorola.com/responsibility
Contact: responsibility@motorola.com
Spotted by: Treehugger via RK
We covered mobile virtual network operator Blyk both before and just after its launch last year. For those who have been wondering how the company is doing, last week it reported that it had reached 100,000 members in Britain in just six months.
Blyk targets 16- to 24-year-olds with its free mobile phone service, which includes 217 texts and 43 minutes every month. In exchange, of course, they get advertising—up to 6 messages sent to their phones each day. Britain's youth don't seem to mind, though—Blyk reached that 100,000-member target six months ahead of schedule. Response rates to the ads in question have also achieved a whopping average of 29 percent—far surpassing the norm, which tends to hover in the single digits.
Shaun Gregory, Blyk's UK CEO, explains: "Reaching 100,000 members is significant for advertisers because it gives them the opportunity to engage with a mass youth audience in a highly efficient and cost-effective way. In six months we have built up a deep knowledge of our member base, which now exceeds many established youth media players, and with over 7 million 16- to-24-year-old phone owners in the UK, there is huge potential for growth."
Blyk will launch in the Netherlands in the second half of 2008, followed by other European markets after that. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs and Industrial and Financial Investments Company (IFIC) recently joined the company's list of investors, which also includes Sofinnova Partners and a number of others. Free love, you're on a roll!
Website: www.blyk.com
Contact: membercare@blyk.co.uk — sales@blyk.co.uk
Spotted by: RK
Travellers who need internet access on the road typically have two choices: either limit their use to the confines of hotel or café wifi—which can be pricey—or subscribe to long-term and expensive broadband data card services. New York-based RovAir now offers a third option with its day-pass wireless mobile broadband service.
Founded last fall, RovAir provides wireless mobile broadband aircards, data cards and evdo cards for internet access without an extended contract. To do that, the company itself maintains the necessary long-term subscriptions for data services with Verizon, Sprint and AT&T. It then offers those services in a day-pass format for those who need short-term but continuous access on the road. Coverage extends anywhere the provider's cellular range goes, which can be searched on RovAir's site. RovAir will ship the data card to the consumer express or by courier, and also provide return packaging. Costs depend on the number of days of use, beginning at USD 5.95 per day. There is a three-day minimum.
Until wireless access is universally available and universally free, there will clearly be demand for a variety of plans like RovAir's. More choice is always a good thing—who will bring it to mobile warriors in the rest of the world?
Website: www.rovair.com
Contact: sales@rovair.com
Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
While you may never be too old to learn, when it comes to gadgets, you can never be too young to teach. A Dutch initiative is taking advantage of kids’ innate cell phone proficiency by training them as ‘phone coaches’ and getting them to transfer their skills to older users.
Bellendoejezo—which roughly translates to “this is how you make a call”—organizes cell phone workshops that cover topics such as using predictive text, creating contact groups, enabling Bluetooth and exploring mobile internet. Not all of the students’ students are equally advanced, though, so sometimes they’ll stick to the basics, like locking a phone’s keyboard, sending a text message and using voicemail.
A group of VMBO students (preparatory middle-level vocational education for students aged 12–16) was trained to work as phone coaches. The program’s goal is to improve their social skills and self-esteem, and give them access to corporate environments they might otherwise not be exposed to. Bellendoejezo is aimed at the corporate market, and charges up to EUR 50 per person for 60-minute workshops. Clients so far have included law firms, banks and an energy company. (Related: Teaching people to use their feature-rich phones.)
Seems like a relatively easy to launch (non-profit) project that benefits everyone involved. One to copy to other parts of the world? Students with an entrepreneurial bent, meanwhile—those that have already been charging their parents for computer and phone tutorials—will no doubt spot the business opportunity here and start up their own coaching services ;-)
Website: www.bellendoejezo.com
Contact: bellendoejezo@live.nl
Mass customization is more than a choice of skins for an iPod or a personalized logo for a Toyota Scion. In a bid to create an active community around OpenMoko, the mobile phone’s Taiwanese manufacturer first published its software. This allowed developers to tweak it as they wished. Releasing open-source software is fairly common these days. However, OpenMoko broke new ground when it published the 3D drafting files for the phone’s case. The latter move lets anyone who knows how to work with CAD alter the case’s design.
By releasing the software and case design files, OpenMoko hopes to generate a passionate community of developers who will create a lengthy list of add-on applications for the phone, as well as innovative designs for its housing. The result will be features and design options that no phone manufacturer could hope to create on its own. By going well beyond the norms of mass customization, the company will also jump start a cottage industry of independent customizers for its phones.
The takeaway here is threefold. Firstly, if you’re so inclined, here’s a ripe opportunity to enter the mobile phone manufacturing business on the cheap. Secondly, OpenMoko’s business model—namely open-sourcing software and hardware files—is one that other start-ups and established manufacturers might well emulate. The products might just as easily be alarm clocks or toaster ovens. And, finally, the ease with which phone cases can be created using 3D printers heralds a day when many products will be produced on the spot, tailored inside and out to a customer’s preferences. Someday a printer vending machine might even let consumers choose a product design and have it built within minutes. When that happens, we’ll be sure to let you know ;-) (Related: Build your own mobile phone — New phone company, made in Silicon Valley — Affordable phones, made to order.)
Website: www.openmoko.com
Contact: contact@openmoko.com
Spotted by RK
Back in 2006 we wrote about the Nike+iPod Sport Kit as an example of the growing number of branded brands—smart partnerships between brands —and now adidas and Samsung have launched an offering along similar lines.
miCoach, which was unveiled just last week, is an adidas-branded Samsung music cell phone equipped with stride sensor and heart rate monitor to provide on-the-go personal training. With one click, users can connect to the fitness features and begin a workout. On their first use, the system assesses their fitness level and places them in one of three categories. Users can then set their own goals, or let the system's personal coach—backed by more than 200 workout plans—guide them. Either way, miCoach provides instruction to encourage and motivate users along the way, such as advising runners to “speed up to power zone” or telling them that “15 minutes is completed.” Tapping the slider phone twice produces instant updates on the workout, and the 2-inch LCD shows a real-time visual display of time, heart rate, distance, speed and calories burned. Users can arrange workout music on the phone according to tempo or motivational value, while a 2-megapixel camera and 1GB memory capacity let them capture their workout milestones. The miCoach also features USB and Bluetooth connectivity for fast file transfers and seamless sync with the miCoach web portal.
The miCoach phone will be available in Europe starting in mid-March, with delivery in the US next year. European pricing will start at about EUR 195, according to the Associated Press. For more on branded brands, check out our sister site trendwatching.com's briefing on the topic. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for more of them!
Website: www.micoach.com
Contact: wos.info@adidas.com
Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
Skiers: active, athletic and often tech savvy, are ideal early adaptor candidates for mobile applications, especially when those applications make their sport more enjoyable and safer.
Case in point? Skimondo, a downloadable application for Nokia GPS-enabled phones. Like the Nike + Ipod kit that records a runner’s performance and provides audio feedback, the beta launch of Skimondo gives everyday skiers the kind of digital feedback once reserved for Olympic hopefuls. Using the free Skimondo download, skiers can easily determine their route and performance. Plus, by displaying both ski trail maps and more precise maps of mountainous terrain, Skimondo shows where each member of a ski party can be found at any given moment, whether they’re on the slopes or careening off piste through a pine grove. In fact, when coupled with a user’s mobile phones talk and SMS functions, Skimondo helps skiers quickly find out if someone in their group gets in trouble.
All that functionality requires some time to implement. And unfortunately, Skimondo currently works at just two Swiss resorts, Verbier and the 4 Vallées. Plans call for additional Swiss ski resorts to be added along with other European and presumably worldwide destination. For Skimondo’s founders, the biggest reward for their painstaking work will likely come in the form of a sizeable well-defined user base that will come to rely on the widget for other revenue-generating purposes—everything from making dinner reservations at the end of the day to clicking on a gear manufacturer’s coupon. And while Skimondo will compete with another promising ski tracking device called Satski, mobile applications (or widgets) hold great promise for entrepreneurs wanting to reach fans of other sports. Before long, we'll no doubt see widgets for hunters, cyclists and kayakers.
Mobile applications that target particular (sports) groups have several advantages: finding users is as easy as finding the special-interest websites they visit and the offline locations they frequent. Also, potential customers are generally willing to pay for products that will enhance their performance or experience. Something to work on if you’re in telecom or leisure! (Related: Ski lift tickets at a discount.)
Website: www.skimondo.com
Contact: www.skimondo.com/en/contact.aspx
Spotted by: Peter Shaw
Start-up phone provider Ribbit aims to offer solutions to questions like: “Why can’t I forward voice messages like I can my email?” or “Why doesn’t my phone ring in my browser?”
Ribbit, which is still in beta testing phase and set to launch in the coming months, is headed up by Silicon Valley tech veterans who plan to load their phone service with applications previously unavailable from a single phone network. Instead of simply displaying a caller ID, for example, Ribbit will create a mashup of relevant information culled from social networks like Twitter and Facebook, revealing what the caller is currently doing/reading/watching.
What Ribbit is attempting, via its development platform Amphibian—is to combine all of the different ‘talk channels’ that consumers are using, and to overlay this unified communication hub with web-enabled features such as voicemail sorting tools and info-rich caller ID. Call routing is good example of their integrated approach. As explained by Ribbit: “Drag and drop personal call routing lets you connect all your phones together. It's your call—you determine where you want to take it. Route calls to Skype, MSN, Google Talk, home, office, or anywhere you want. Ring all, none, or some...answer one and they all stop ringing. And you can even move a live call from one phone to another.”
Additional applications will come from independent developers using Amphibian’s API. These developers—more than 600 have signed on so far—can sell the tools they create via Ribbit’s online store. That’s where the opportunity for tech-savvy entrepreneurs may lie. Ribbit itself will create revenue through access fees to its API, along with support services and sales of applications developed both in-house and by third parties. Ribbit isn’t alone in this space, of course. Heavyweight Google recently announced its open model Android operating system for mobile phones. Another major player, eBay, is under pressure to wring more profits from its Skype subsidiary. And Apple has plans to further open up its iPhone to third party developers.
Bottom line: the telecom industry is about to get even more lively, with lots of opportunities for small-scale developers to create their own profitable niches that serve consumers like never before.
Website: www.ribbit.com
Contact: info@ribbit.com
Spotted by: Mark Ingebretsen
